Katraj 42; Breakdowns

“Ramakant, Ramakant…. The 42-route bus has again had a breakdown, get the breakdown van to Kharalwadi and see what’s the matter”, the dialogue is always the same, only the routes change and Ramkant and Supervisor Dange know that dialogue very well. These two people work like small but crucial cogs in the PMPML system. They both know that every day if there are not at least 5-6 breakdowns then there is surely some problem with the system otherwise it’s a normal day for them.

Ramkant wanted to be an engineer but ended being a fitter in PMPML Nigdi bus Depo, it is very obvious that though having the instinctive knowledge about the automobiles, it was unfortunate that Ramakant never really had colours flying. So it was decided that 2 years at Aundh ITI would be sufficient to get him a government job and so he did. You can spot Ramakant from much longer distance in most crowded places, the blackened khaki with grease or motor oil and sports shoes are his trademark, the clothes are such black at some spots that one would guess that the cloth fabric was black its Ramkant who is into painting business only painting khaki around.  These were the pair of clothes and his only belongings in the depo. The clothes have become the skin and the odour of oil his scent. But Ramakant is genius when it comes to fitting or repairing the buses. He knows so much about buses and such is his life that there are no more dreams of monsters or nude girls, but the broken buses, buses with different parts required, buses without tyres etc. He no longer sees any beautiful damsels in his dreams but buses, buses and buses. Give a broken bus to Ramkant and like a skilled surgeon with steady hands working on very critical operations he would demand Vaibhav Patil his new understudy certain spanner, certain bolts  etc that it is like magic to see Ramkant work on machine, but only for two to three times and you would get bore, there is simply nothing extraordinary about repairing a bus, often the new drivers and inquisitive conductors get behind him to see him working but just after two breakdowns the drivers and conductors head for the tea stall  talking as if they are the inventors of this public vehicle and know what is exactly wrong. But Ramakant does not mind, he likes to keep his business to himself, often like a doctor who knows what is exactly wrong with the patient ignoring the relatives whose arguments are so convincing that often the patient believes in relatives than the doctors.

The breakdown is a perennial problem in the PMPML system, it is such frequent that it has been included in SOP (standard operating procedures) in PMPML books. Every new conductor and driver are acquainted with this SOP in just two to three days of joining. The conditions of Old vehicles and constant demands for parts and tyres are another story, tires are remoulded so many times that it is difficult to guess which company or brand it was off but it is easy to say that such and such tyres have lived 2 years or 3 years by just counting the remoulded rings.  The Conductors and drivers who are on contract know this very well and straight away reject a vehicle after just seeing the tires but the management has come up with a unique plan if you reject the appointed vehicle then call it a day. Believe it or not, it is not so easy to call it a day at the start of the shift. So hapless conductors and drivers have to take whatever comes to them and work on it. The passengers, the public, the real owners of PMPML are often on contrary seen bad mouthing these people without knowing the cause and what happens after a breakdown on a route will take another blog. But let's not get away from the topic.

Why breakdowns, well most of the buses in depots are as old as 15years some are surviving the junkyard and new ones only look new for a month before public and roads make them old beyond the years. The old vehicle is diesel and People like Ramakant for whom it is busy day every day, are gods among them, but recent few years have seen the diesel vehicles sided for more cost-effective CNG(Compressed Natural Gas) vehicles, the fitters have instinctive knowledge about diesel but when it comes to CNG they are like doctors who are incapable of diagnosing an illness and often resorts to trial and error method of prescribing various medications of different illnesses. Ramakant does the same give him a diesel engine and he would open it within minutes if not seconds operate on it and fix it like new, which can last depending roads from 1 week to few months.  But CNG is altogether a different story, Ramkant desperately applies various problem-solving techniques he has learned through experience sometimes they work sometimes they don’t.


But today….Ramakant has to go to route 42 for seeing the breakdown….

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Underdog Part 3; Life on the streets

Icarus's Lament

The Underdog Part 1